A New Beginning
by Hinata5enpai
Summary: "One day I'm going to slip up and all hell's gonna break lose. He'll probably kill me, but then maybe he'll get caught." Tenten is determined to keep her chaotic home-life and blossoming social life separate, but when she meets Hinata, Neji, and the gang that doesn't seem so likely. A rework of "To Each Their Own". Ten x Neji Sakura x Sasuke Hinata x Naruto Ino x Shikamaru AU AU AU
1. Chapter 1

"Dad, please!" A dark figure loomed over me with tension in it's shoulders.

In the back of my mind I shook my head in disapproval of the stacks of unpacked boxes of kitchen supplies to my right.

A throaty voice roared from within the large man in front of me, "Why do you plead with me when you know it does you no good? Your argument is invalid."

If I weren't in a dangerous place right now, I'd have raised an eyebrow at his choice of vocabulary.

He's threatening to pummel me, but speaks to me as if we're having a serious debate?

If I chose to talk back to him, there would be consequences.

 _I nearly shivered at the memory of being whipped with a wet wooden kitchen spoon._

 _Dad had been yelling at me about keeping my hair up in two buns, saying that if I left it down I'd become an attention whore with the boys at school._

 _He claimed that a woman's hair is a large factor in how attractive she is considered._

 _In his mind, if I didn't let it flow freely, less males would be drawn to me._

 _I had interrupted him to say that I wouldn't want to date anyone who cares so much for appearance anyway, and he lost his shit._

 _I remember having to wear long sleeves to school for a week to hide the marks, even though it was hot outside._

The man stood at a remarkable six and half feet tall (almost 200 cm), towering over my five foot four frame (about 163 cm).

Beady green eyes were in slits as they glared down into my own, wider brown ones.

A large part of my body was in flight mode, but I fought the instinct to run and spoke with a fake confidence, "Tomorrow is my first day at school. If I show up with fresh bruises, they'll all instantly think that something is up."

I placed the words carefully, doing my best not to offend the hotheaded man.

 _One slip up and it was a one-way ticket to a whole lot of hurt._

I daringly held his gaze, trying to let him know with my eyes that I meant to use no attitude whatsoever in my pleading.

Olive eyes widened only slightly before returning to their slit form.

With a small shove on my shoulder that knocked me against the wall, the man turned on his heel and stomped up the stairs towards his bedroom.

His heavy work boots sent thumps echoing through the not-yet-decorated halls.

My name's Tenten and I'm only sixteen.

Let me explain what that whole messed up scene was about.

My dad has extreme anger issues, and they come out at my mother and me more than anyone else.

My mother once told me that before they were married, but were still dating, that he was arrested for beating a woman to near death and was sentenced to counseling, anger management classes, and three hundred hours of community service.

That seems like he got off pretty easy right?

Well, he didn't think so and promptly moved out of the city that they were living to run from his crimes.

Of course, he dragged mom along with him.

She never said anything, but I have a feeling he used to beat on her even back then.

Anyway, they moved to a large city in the United States called New York and he became a high class banker.

Everything seemed to be going well.

They got pregnant, had me, had a medium sized house with nice things and two decent cars.

Life was just fine.

 _My father hit me for the first time when I was six years old._

 _I was raised how many American kids would have been raised._

 _I had chores, discipline, and played soccer in middle school._

 _One day, I skipped out on mopping the kitchen floor and my father had come home from a long day at work to find me playing tag outside with the neighbor kids._

 _When I heard him hollering my name from inside the house, I knew that he'd found out I'd lied about my chores and came running into the house to apologize to him._

 _Now, I had had my butt whooped a few times as part of punishments, and I think that sometimes that is acceptable, but when his large hand hit me so hard that I fell flat on my back, I felt as though my soul had just been ripped in two._

 _My head had smacked against the linoleum and I later had to have staples to help the cut._

 _My mother worked part-time at a bakery and had come home to find me with a large bruise on my face and a towel on the back of my head._

 _The look of dread on her face told me that she knew exactly what happened._

Ever since then, I've learned through mistakes on exactly what will set him off: anything.

So, naturally my mom and I tiptoe around him.

Everything will almost be normal at home.

Dad will have a few beers and have a game on the tv going.

Eventually, he'll strike up a conversation with us about how unfair his life is and we'll listen intently, being sure to agree with him when he wants us to.

Maybe if we let him vent he'll eventually shut up and just watch the damn game.

Sometimes it work, but sometimes he'll go on for hours and his anger will rise to the point of being aggression.

That is when things get bad and we end up with bruises.

I don't want you to think this is some kind of sappy, "pity me", story.

We have tried multiple times to get the cops involved, but it turns out that the police in America are crooked.

The first time I went behind my mom and dad's back and called the cops, he'd cut her with a knife on the arm and I thought he was going to kill her.

 _I had been hiding under the stairs, fighting my demons trying to decide whether to intervene and take some of the hits for her, get help, or just hide it out._

 _I chose the second option and used the emergency phone in the bathroom to dial 911._

 _They had two police cruisers at our house in a few minutes and my father greeted them at the door._

 _Since my father is Chinese (my mother is American, so I am half), he somehow convinced the dense police officers that he runs a highly-profitable company in China and would pay them off at the end of each year if they kept these incidents to themselves._

 _Those motherfuckers fell for it!_

 _Once he got rid of them, my mother was forgotten and father chopped all of my hair off. I was eight._

You're probably wondering how we ended up in Konoha, right?

Well, my mother's friends at work found out about everything.

They apparently had some connections because my father came home from work one day beaten to a pulp and seething with anger.

He sold the cars, and "accidentally" burnt down our house.

With the insurance money, he had us pack up everything and move out of the country.

Apparently he was afraid someone higher-up than the cops had found out and he wanted to get away.

When the door to my parents' bedroom slammed shut, I brushed imaginary dust off of my pants and sighed.

One of these days, I'm gonna fuck up and we're gonna go head to head.

I'd probably lose, but maybe he'll get caught.

After calming my nerves with a few deep breathes and a glass of water, I began unpacking plates from the top box of the stack.

I hope I can make friends at the new school.

Leaf Academy was a very prestigious school.

So prestigious, in fact, that I'm surprised dad even payed the tuition.

It's a private school for teenagers of middle to high-class status.

 _The uniform was a black and white pleated skirt that ended just two inches above the knee, a white long-sleeve button up shirt (with roll-able sleeves), a thin blue vest, and black dress shoes._

 _Each grade has a different color vest._

 _Freshman have red, Sophomores have green, Juniors have blue, and Seniors have gold._

 _I'm not normally one to wear a skirt, being a tomboy at heart and normally having to cover as much skin as possible, but the outfit was cute in an anime kind of way and I liked it._

 _Besides, the handbook says that students can choose to wear stockings, leggings, ribbons, and other things to add a little bit of individuality to it._

I was looking forward to meeting new people, but I wasn't looking forward to having to shave my legs all the time to look decent in the outfit.

Even with my life as crazy as it is, I have time to hate the small things.

* * *

In the morning after I'd showered, I blow dried my hair and put it up.

Dad didn't allow me to wear makeup so I just got dressed, and headed downstairs.

Mom was making breakfast and yelled, "Hey!" when I tried to leave early.

I laughed and hurried to give her a quick hug and kiss on the cheek in the kitchen, "Mom, I gotta get going. I wanna look around a bit before school starts."

The skinny woman gave me a small smile and handed me a piece of buttered toast, "At least eat something on the way. I love you, Tenten. Have a great day."

I snatched the toast and took a bite in front of her so she could see that I planned on eating it before giving her another cheek kiss and hurrying outside.

* * *

 **I previously posted this story, but I reread it and found so many horrible mistakes, plot holes, lack of character, etc.**

 **I plan on re-rewriting this and posting it as a new story. If any of you have read the old version and have any input, feel free to let me know.**

 **If any of you just have some ideas that you'd like to maybe be seen, feel free to say so.**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

The air outside was warm and humid.

The wetness in the air made my legs feel damp as I walked along the sidewalk.

The aroma of freshly cut grass lingered in the air and grass clippings dusted the concrete.

My black shoulder bag hit my hip with each step I took.

A cute German Shepard dog barked at me from someone's yard, but didn't chase me or anything.

I smiled at it before returning my attention to all of the tall buildings around me, noticing that each one was more grand than the next.

The closer I got to the school, the bigger the houses became.

I followed the street, seeing as the school was a straight shot from my house, just eight or nine blocks away.

I had walked almost ten minutes before a castle-like building came into view.

The picture on my pamphlet matched the appearance and I was absolutely astounded.

It says on the paper that the building was nearly a hundred years old, but in person it looked freshly engineered.

Not one inch of decay was visible on the granite building.

Beautiful red rose bushes lined both the sidewalk and the perimeter of the building, and they were well taken care of.

The grass was greener than any of the yards' that I'd passed on my way here, freshly cut.

The building itself had two pillars framing the large front doors.

The pillars had vines delicately winding up to the sign across the top that read, "Leaf Academy, ".

A sense of romance flooded through me.

I felt as though a live action Romeo and Juliet could take place on this lawn and it would fit so well.

Immediately after that wave passed, I felt horribly imperfect.

My eyes roamed down to my unpainted nails wearily.

A building so beautiful would definitely outshine me!

I can only imagine what the students look like.

How embarrassing of me to come so unprepared!

My eyes were drawn to the sound of laughter across the yard.

Two girls were seated on a white blanket on the grass, laughing about something on one of their phones.

So it was okay to be on the grass.

I took a deep breath and got rid of any doubts I previously had.

Even if I'm not the best, I'm going to do my best.

Once I'd reached the front doors, the building seemed even bigger.

The dark gray doors were windowless, but were decorated with shining silver designs.

The ribbon-like design gracefully added a touch of elegance to the building.

Back in America, there weren't any high schools like this. Colleges maybe, but never high schools.

I pushed one of the heavy doors open and my face fell as soon as I saw the inside of the school.

While it was nice, clean, and classy, it wasn't as Victorian-themed as the outside was.

The doors were all metal and gray, the floors were a shiny black, and the walls were tan.

Trophy case upon trophy case lined the walls all the way down to a T shaped cutoff at the end of the hall.

A bulletin board was hung directly in the middle of the T.

I admired the many trophies and medals to each of my sides as I walked slowly towards the board.

I looked at the ceiling.

Instead of the rectangle-shaped lights that most schools have, there were upside-down wine-shaped lights hanging from each panel.

That was fancy.

I wonder if the bulbs were the eco-friendly ones.

Once I got to the board, I scanned over all of the club advertisements, and sports schedules to find the school map.

After taking a copy of said map, I followed the right hallway for a minute before coming up on an office door that said, "PRINCIPAL, " in all caps across it's metal plate.

Forcing a smile onto my face, I knocked a few times.

The door flung open quickly and I had to take a step back from a flash of blond that erupted from the room.

A teenage boy sprinted out of the room with a loud laugh, yelling, "Bye Baa-chan!"

The sound of the change in his pocket jingling was heard even after he was gone from my sight.

I'm sure I looked dumbfounded, because a rough voice brought my attention back to the principal's office, "That little shit! I told him not to call me that."

My eyes shot to a middle-aged blond woman.

A green crystal was placed delicately between her eyebrows, and her caramel colored eyes were glaring at me.

Realizing that I was staring at her, I quickly stepped into the room and shut the door behind me.

I bowed before handing the woman my information papers and introducing myself, "Hello, I'm Tenten. Today is my first day."

The woman accepted my papers and motioned for me to have a seat in one of the two chairs in front of her desk.

They were bulky and artistic, but slightly uncomfortable.

The school seemed to have a taste for modern art.

I sat and secretly looked at her again.

This time I noticed that she had humongous boobs, and I'm talking porn star big!

I wonder if they're real.

Someone cleared their throat and I quickly met her gaze.

She was glaring at me.

Shit, she noticed.

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks and I quickly looked back down at my lap.

The woman seemed to cross her legs under her desk and I heard a clank.

Looking at the floor to her left, I saw that she'd knocked over a vodka bottle. In fact, there were at least five empty bottle laying on the floor in front of the trash can behind her.

Good lord, woman.

I met her gaze again to see that she was still glaring at me, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

She began ruffling through the mess of papers on her desk.

The front of it had the name "Tsunade" engraved into it with that beautiful silver ribbon that the front doors also had.

After a few more awkward silent moments, the woman finally spoke, "My name is Tsunade, as you can see, "she gestured to the front of her desk, "I am the principal here at Leaf Academy. My great-great-grandfather built this school and passed it down throughout the family and I am the first female in charge. So, don't think that I'm going to just stand aside if you decide to cause trouble in my school."

I nodded with a gulp, "No need to worry about that Miss Tsunade."

The woman's glare hardened, "Just Tsunade please, this isn't America and I'm not your professor. Anyway, here is a copy of your class schedule. A few classes will be changed at the end of the semester, but you will receive a new copy at that time. Your first class is with Kakashi Hatake, your maths teacher. Have each of your teachers sign this schedule at the end of each class today and bring it to my office after the final bell. I will also ask that you ask him to assign you a student guide for the first week of school."

She handed me a yellow piece of paper with times, room numbers, and names on them before meeting my gaze head on and lowering her voice an octave, "Tell him to be more careful this time with who he chooses. You don't want to know what happened to the Hyuuga girl when her and her cousin first came to this school."

A part of me was curious, but I chose to let the comment go.

It was none of my business.

I nodded and gave her a thankful smile, "Thank you, is there anything else I need to do?"

The woman shook her head and suddenly bellowed loudly, "SHIZUNE!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise of her sudden yelling, and a young brunette woman came running into the room.

She was sweating and looked to be quite stressed, "Yes, ma'am?"

Tsunade brought a bottle of vodka out from under her desk and took a swig before motioning with her free hand to go away, "Give Tenten directions to Kakashi's room will you? I've got things to do."

It took all I had not to hang my mouth open at the woman's free drinking.

The Shizune woman guided me out into the hall before bowing to me nervously, "I'm terribly sorry about her, she's going through some family troubles at the moment and is a bit more drunk than usual."

So she's usually drunk anyway?

What the hell kind of school is this?

Shizune pointed in the direction the blond teen from earlier had run, "If you go down this hall and turn right down the second hall, it'll be the third door okay? Feel free to come see me again if you have any problems. My office is just next door to Tsunade's. "

I bowed to her and gave her a thank you before heading in the direction that she'd told me to go.

Shizune promptly headed back into Tsunade's office and I could hear them yelling at each other.

I found it quite endearing rather than frightening.

Lost in my thoughts, I realized that I had past the hall that I was supposed to turn into and didn't know where I was.

You had one job, Tenten!

The halls were starting to fill with other students and the sound of chatter and music being played off of cellphones lingered in the air.

All I've got to do is ask someone for help, no problem.

At first I tried to ask a redheaded guy with a tattoo on his forehead for directions, but he raised a hand to silence me and shook his head no.

Before I could ask what was wrong, he walked away from me.

I'm sure my cheeks were red when I went up to a group of four girls.

Their hair was all unnatural colors.

Two of them had blue hair, one light and one dark, one had green hair, and the "leader" of the group had blood red hair.

It was teased at the roots like some of those "scene" girls like to do.

It looked good on her, I won't lie.

The other three paled in comparison to the redhead.

She just screamed leader, so she was the one I approached.

I overheard part of their conversation before they noticed me, "Right? The girl's eyes are so damn scary! They can't blame us for reacting the way we did, we didn't know if she was possessed or someth-, " The light blue-haired one nudged the redhead and nodded in my direction.

She peered through her cat-eye glasses at me and put on a smile.

I couldn't tell if it was real or not, "Oh, hi. What do you want?"

I took a deep breath and smiled, "I'm sorry to interrupt, I was just wondering if you could give me some directions to my class? I'm new here."

In the back of my mind, it kind of clicked that the girls weren't nice people as soon as I saw a look of disgust simultaneously appear on the four girls' faces.

The redhead pushed up her glasses and pretended to check out her manicured nails, "What are you gonna give me for helping you?"

For a second, I didn't know how to reply, but I managed to ask, "I'm sorry, what?"

The girls all giggled before the redhead turned her eyes on me and stood tall with her hands on her hips, leaning forward a bit to speak clearly, "I said, what are you gonna give me? Money? Homework? You'll learn soon that nothing is free in life," the girl looked over her shoulder to the green haired one with a smile before leaning down even closer to my face, "However, I think I like you, Panda."

She gave one of my hair-buns a tug, " What's your first class?"

I didn't like her at all!

The way she talked and placed herself above her friends like that made me uncomfortable so I pushed her hand away from my hair and took a step back, "I've made a mistake, I can see that. Thank you anyway and I'm sorry, but I don't want to be involved with someone like you."

I bowed and turned to walk way, ignoring the collective gasps and a bewildered, "Excuse me?!".

I didn't need girls like that in my life.

* * *

It was nearly five whole minutes after the bell when I finally found my class.

One of the other students helped me find it.

The boy had smelled of weed and didn't seem to be in any rush to make it to whatever class he was late for, but I'm not one to judge.

I thanked him with a smile before opening the heavy metal door that said "Kakashi Hatake" in that same silver lettering.

The familiar buzz of chatter met my ears as I shut the door behind me.

Confusion set in when I looked at the full room of students and didn't find a teacher.

There were six rows of eight seats, two per table, and all four of the front rows were full.

A few stragglers scattered here and there in the back two rows, so that's where I headed.

No one even glanced at me as I walked up the steps to the fifth row.

I sat in the desk next to the window and placed my bag against my chair, placing a fresh notebook and mechanical pencil on the table in front of me.

Only one other kid sat in my row and he was two tables down.

He was well built, but not too muscular, and tall.

With raven black hair and matching eyes, he seemed to be a cranky guy.

His dark eyes had bags under them, and he glared at the board, or through it, I'm not sure.

Embarrassingly, I tried to say hello to him only to be completely ignored.

I muttered a sorry out, even though he wasn't listening before putting my gaze on the notebook in front of me.

The teacher still wasn't here!

After nearly twenty minutes of mindless doodling in my book, the door finally opened to reveal a silver haired man with a black mask on covering the majority of his face.

He had two different eye colors, and the right one had a scar from his hairline to under his mask.

One of his eyes was a dark brown and the other was black with red spots.

Some would say he looked rather dangerous or unapproachable, but the moment he walked in, the class started yelling insults about his tardiness at him.

His eyebrows raised comically and he raised a hand in greeting, silencing the complaints, "Good morning class! Welcome to the new school year, I am Hitake Kakashi, you can just call me Kakashi. I'm sorry I'm late, but I saw a cat stuck in my neighbor's tree and I couldn't just leave it there, so I helped get him down. Then, I had to take him to the shelter downtown because I'm not gonna take him to the kill shelter on the highway, that's just wro-"

The loud blonde from Tsunade's office earlier stood up and pointed at the man accusingly, "Oh drop it, old man! Don't give us that crap!"

The class started laughing and Kakashi sighed before taking a clipboard off of his desk and leaning back against the blackboard, "I'm going to do roll call so keep it down."

He called out everyone's name normally and a "here" followed each name from the mentioned student.

When he got to my name, I raised my hand and said, "Here," just like everyone else and Kakashi looked up from his clipboard.

His bored eyes looked at me and I dropped my hand, fearing I did something odd.

The mans eyes closed in what seemed like a smile, "Welcome to our school, Tenten. I can tell that you're new. Would you like to come to the front and introduce yourself?"

Everyone turned to look at me, and I quickly shook my head no, feeling a little nervous, "No thank you, I'm okay."

The man laughed and spoke to the class, "I hope everyone welcomes you with open arms."

My cheeks burnt.

How cool is it to have your teacher tell everyone to be friends with you?

Not very cool.

I can't be mad at him though, he was just being polite.

I gave him a nod and a smile before he finished up with roll call and began explaining this semester's syllabus.

Each of my three more classes before lunch were pretty much the same, except for actually starting on time of course.

* * *

At the end of my fourth class, free studies, I realized that I had forgotten to have Kakashi assign me a guide.

I'd been so overwhelmed with all of the new things that I'd completely looked over it.

After tracing my steps, and asking a few random people for directions, I made it back to Kakashi's room.

Since it was lunch time, I knocked on the door, fearing that I was interrupting him or worse, him and other teachers.

The man opened the door after a few seconds with what seemed to be a smile.

"Hello Tenten. How's your day gone so far? Are you enjoying the school?"

With a bow and a smile, I nodded, "Uh, yeah, thank you. Actually, Tsunade had told me to have you assign me a guide after first period and I kind of forgot so here I am!"

The man chuckled and invited me into his room.

As I passed him, I caught a glimpse of an orange book on his desk.

I recognized the cover because one of my guy friends from middle school once brought it to school saying that he stole it from his father.

He didn't know what it was and didn't find out until both of us and a group of others decided to read it together.

My eyes shot up to Kakashi's face in disbelief.

 _First a principal that has a drinking problem, and now a math teacher that reads porn novels out in the open?_

The man had to know what my look was about, but he ignored it and shut the door behind me, "If you had asked me first period, I'd probably have assigned you to Naruto, but seeing as the opportunity has arrived, I'm assigning you to Hinata Hyuga."

The man gestured to one of the three students in his room.

A short, but busty girl with fringe bangs looked up to us in surprise with red cheeks and a slack mouth.

The name "Hyuga" peeked my interest.

 _Both the snobby girls from the hallway and Tsunade had mentioned something about a Hyuga girl being bullied._

Well, the girls might have actually **been** the bullies.

Anyway, the girl's eyes lacked pupils and shined in a lavender/silver that reminded me of pearls.

That must have been what the redhead meant when she was talking about a girl's eyes being different.

Unlike the girls though, I thought they were beautiful, very intriguing!

I smiled down at the girl and bowed, "Hello, Hinata. My name's Tenten. Would you like to be my guide for the rest of the week? I wouldn't want to be an inconvenience, so feel free to decline if you have other things. I won't take it personally."

The girl scrambled to her feet, knocking her pencil to the ground, and bowed back at me.

Her dark hair flowed freely down her back, almost reaching her bottom.

She replied in a soft voice, "N-no, it wouldn't be a problem, Tenten. It's l-lovely to meet you."

My hands clasped together in front of me with excitement.

 _Maybe she'll be my first new friend?_

The girl reached down to pick up her fallen pencil before collecting her things and placing them in a white backpack and pulling it onto her slim shoulders, "So are y-you going to lunch right n-n-now?"

I glanced at Kakashi and he gave me a nod from his desk before picking up his book.

Turning to Hinata I walked towards the door with her, "Yeah, want to eat together?"

The girl nodded, a pretty blush dusting her cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

The two of us had a conversation about our likes, dislikes, and about the town as we walked to the cafeteria.

It turns out that the Hyuga family has actually been in the city for hundreds of years.

Many high-powered officials come from the Hyuga family, as well as many famous singers, actors, and authors.

Now that I thought about it, the name was sounding even more familiar.

A year or so ago a man named Itokita Hyuga was in a big remake of the American classic, "The Titanic,".

If her family is so big and powerful, how come she is being bullied?

A small part of me commended her on not becoming a snobby girl.

It would have been so easy for her to do so.

When we reached the cafeteria, Hinata explained that the front line was for the school's prepared lunch, the side line was for vegan and/or lactose intolerant students, and the back line was for purchasable snacks that you could buy at a convenience store.

Hinata and I both went to the prepared lunch, which was rice with broccoli, baked chicken, and banana pudding.

The girl explained that Seniors get to leave school for lunch and that's why there were empty seats in the lunch room.

Once we sat down at one of these empty tables, our conversation picked up again.

I looked down at my food before nervously asking what had been on my mind since meeting the girl, "Hinata, can I ask you something without sounding rude?"

The girl took a small bite of her chicken and nodded at me, that telltale blush still on her cheeks.

I cleared my throat and met her eyes cautiously, "I've heard that you were bullied when you first transferred here. Is that true?"

The girl swallowed her bite and looked down to play with her hands anxiously.

She didn't immediately respond and I quickly put my hands up in panic, "I hope I'm not being rude! I just wanted to let you know that I won't just stand by if it happens in front of me. If someone has to make someone else feel bad to have any sense of joy, then we should truly feel sorry for them."

The girl looked up at me with her face beating more red than before.

She shyly stuttered out a thank you before offering a grateful smile.

We eventually turned to the topic of my family and I was looking for something to turn the conversation away.

Just like a bat out of hell, Hinata's eyes widened and her face paled.

She looked behind me with a bit of fear in her face.

I stopped in the middle of whatever I was saying to turn and look at what had her stunned.

The redhead from earlier and her little posse were standing behind me with their arms crossed.

Not wanting to start any trouble, I tried to remain casual, "Hello. How are you guys?"

Hinata looked at me in disbelief.

I had told her about what happened with the girls this morning and she informed me that the redhead's name was Karin.

Karin had been assigned by Kakashi as Hinata's guide and it didn't end well.

The girls and Karin had actually tormented the poor girl.

They stuck gum in her hair and she almost had to get it cut off.

They put ketchup under the girls' bathroom toilet seats so when any girls sat down, it would look like they'd gotten their period.

I guess that one wasn't just against Hinata.

At the peak of the bullying, Karin had actually hired a thug to jump Hinata on her way out of the school building.

They say that if not for Hinata's cousin, who I've yet to meet, Hinata might have been seriously hurt.

She apparently got away with a few bumps and scratches.

Once Tsunade found out about the bullying, the four girls that had done it had been suspended for a week.

Without any proof that Karin had hired the thug, she couldn't expel anyone.

Ever since then, the bullying was strictly verbal.

Karin's family was rich, not as rich as the Hyuga, but they owned the mall downtown.

The girl apparently had a large ego, and by apparently, I mean definitely.

You could tell just by how she held herself.

The four girls glared down at me, but Karin eventually placed her hands on her hips, stance similar to this morning, "I see you've made a friend, Hinata. How wonderful for you."

There was an obvious mocking in her tone and I was getting annoyed quickly.

While I can handle people being rude to me, people being rude to my friends really ticked me off.

My fuse was much shorter when it wasn't me under fire.

I turned halfway in my chair to face the girls, "She **has** made a friend, but that is none of your business. Do you need anything?"

Karin's eyes narrowed and I heard Hinata gasp.

Karin pulled my arm up, making me stand up.

I stood just a few inches shorter than the girl.

She poked me in the chest, other hand still firm against her hip, "Listen here Panda, I'm gonna make something clear right now so you don't make that mistake again. You don't talk back to **me.** Do you know who I am? I'm sure Hinata here has told you what I can do."

I leaned in a bit closer to her, and I could see her pores and how her foundation was just a bit off-tone from her skin, "What, how you can hire someone else to do your dirty work because you can't get anything done for yourself?"

The cafeteria went silent.

I was sure Karin would have tried to hit me or something then, but a teacher suddenly appeared next to us and placed a hand on each of our shoulders.

The man had dark brown hair and tan skin.

A cigarette hung loosely out of the side of his mouth, "Is there a problem here, ladies?"

Karin turned to bat her eyelashes at the man, it seemed as if she was trying to seduce her way out of trouble.

I'm sure the look of disgust on my face was clear as day, as it matched the look on the teacher's face.

Karin purred out, "No, sir. No trouble **here** , anyway."

She put an emphasis on the word "here", as if it was a sexual innuendo.

I muttered out an, "Ew."

The teacher removed his hands from our shoulders and pointed at both of us, "If I see any of this again, I'm sending you both straight to Tsunade, you hear me?"

We both nodded, and Karin gave a wink before strutting off with her group of girls.

The teacher shook his head in disbelief before nodding at me and returning to his position looking over the cafeteria.

I sat back down with Hinata and made a retching noise.

She just stared at me with her mouth agape.

The rest of the lunchroom went back to whatever they were doing.

Obviously no fight was happening.

I took a large bite of rice and Hinata just stared down at her hands again for a few minutes.

After I'd swallowed, I nodded in her direction, "Are you okay? You should eat before lunch is o-"

"T-Thank you for standing up for m-me!"

Hinata's face was red and she looked like she might cry.

She seemed surprised that I was so calm.

I smiled at her and reached to pat her shoulder from across the table, "Don't worry about it, Hinata. That's what friends are for."

After we finished eating, we put our trays away and went to our lockers.

Hinata gave me her home phone number and I gave her my cellphone number.

Apparently getting a cellphone is a right of passage in the Hyuga family and she can only have it when she has all A's.

The young woman thrived in all of her studies except for one: math.

That would explain why she was doing homework in Kakashi's room when I arrived.

After showing me to my next class, world history, Hinata hurried off to whatever class she had next.

My heart soared as I saw her nervously dodge incoming students in the hallway.

I had made a friend!

Turning my attention to the door I was standing before, I noticed that the silver design shaped the name "Sarutobi Asuma".

The name Sarutobi piqued my interest.

The previous Hokage had shared the same name.

Perhaps they were distantly related?

Without dwelling on the thought too long, I pushed open the heavy door.

You know those moments when you just know that someone was talking about you?

Well, this was one of those.

The entire class became silent when I entered the room, studying my every move as I headed up to an empty back-row seat.

The warning bell chimed just as I took a seat and stared intently at my desk.

I could feel thirty or so sets of eyes burning into my skin.

I was damn near about to give them a piece of my mind when the final bell rang and the teacher came into the room.

My heart skipped a beat, and not in the good way.

The bulky man had a cigarette burning out of the side of his mouth.

This is the same teacher from lunch.

Great, just great. Of course he's going to think I'm some kind of troublemaker and he'll be on my case all year about it.

The man had a large ashtray filled with butts on the corner of his desk, so the smoking had to be a regular thing.

So far I'd witnessed an alcoholic principal, perverted math teacher, and now a tobacco-addicted history professor.

How much more odd could this place get?

The man spared no extra words on the syllabus or introductions and skipped straight to taking attendance.

When he crossed my name and I called out a "here", the man gave me a hard look for a second.

I gulped and waited for him to chastise me, but he instead gave me a small smile and a nod before moving on.

* * *

Once my last class, physical education, was released, I hurriedly threw my books in my locker and took off out of the front doors of the building.

I met Hinata briefly at the end of the road where she was waiting for her ride to show up.

After thanking her again for her help throughout the day, I jogged the rest of the way home.

Once my house came into view, I took a second to memorize it's exterior.

The home was an off white color with cherry brown trimming and roof tiles.

It was two stories tall with a basement and two car garage.

There were ten or so steps leading up to a small porch with no decorations but an old, muddy welcome mat.

There wasn't even a handrail for the stairs.

So, the house needed some renovations, but it was better than what it could be.

A tall oak tree stood at the side of the house, leading right up to my bedroom window.

How cliche and convenient!

Finally, I noticed that my dad's new-used Nison was parked in the driveway, but not pulled into the garage.

A long scratch ran from the back door handle to the tail light and I knew what had happened.

Dad probably got in a fender-bender.

My eyes threatened to water up with self-pitying tears.

I just know he's going to be pissed.


	4. Chapter 4

The rhythmic _tap tap tap_ of my shoes against the sidewalk gradually slowed the closer I came to the stairs.

The grass in my yard was just as green as the yards around it, and the flowers in the garden on the side of the house bloomed just as brightly as any others would.

On the inside of the home, however, there was a rampant chaos swirling around the inside of my dad's mind.

I thought about Hinata as I gingerly took the first step in my ascent.

The girl and I had talked about so many things in just one day.

It turns out that she was in my first, second, and final class.

I can't believe I didn't notice her in my first and second period.

She'd also explained that the quiet kid that sits a few seats away from them is part of their little group, but he and Naruto are arguing about something stupid so he didn't want to sit with them today.

She told me that she sits with a few of her other friends in class, so she probably didn't stand out.

I had replied agreeing with her, just not for the same reasons.

Hinata told me about her group of friends and how they had all started hanging out around the time everyone found out about Karin bullying her.

With a bright blush on her cheeks, she admitted that she really needed them when they showed up and that she never wanted to let go of them.

When she said something so raw to me, I felt my own cheeks begin to burn.

That look of joy in her eyes is what I was longing for.

You could tell that she depended and loved her friends just by how she spoke so highly of them.

I had bashfully admitted to her that I wanted to meet her friends because I was taking our friendship seriously and Hinata gave me a shy smile and nodded, saying that she'd introduce me as soon as she could get all of us together at one time.

The girl had invited me to come over to her house after school, but as you can guess, I couldn't just go without previously planning with my parents.

Besides, I'm not sure if having that many people focus on me at one time is a good thing.

Once I start talking, I don't know what will slip out, and the less amount of potential witnesses, the better.

I'd made it to the top of the staircase and reached out to push the door handle when my hand froze.

That heartbreaking sound of work boots stomping closer and closer met my ears.

 _Thump Th **ump** **Thump!**_

I snatched my hand back from the door and took a step back as the door swung open.

The smell of weed and alcohol poured out of the house, burning the hairs in my nose and almost making me gag.

My father let the door hit the wall on the inside of the house and loomed over me with his arms out to his sides, hands in fists.

"Tenten. I've told you one time too many that if I find any clothes that I didn't buy you in your laundry, I'm going to rip them to shreds. Can you guess what I've found in your room today?"

The teenage part of me wanted to yell at him for invading my privacy and going through my stuff, but I knew exactly what he'd found.

My friends from my last school had all pitched in to buy me a white t-shirt and they had everyone in our grade sign it with sharpies.

I know that sounds like a childish thing to cherish, but I thought it was a lovely gesture.

I put both of my hands up in defense, my bag swinging on my shoulder, "Dad, I'm sorry about the shirt. I know I should have asked you if I could keep it. I guess I just figured since it was something I wouldn't actually wear it'd be ok-"

My breath escaped past my lips with a _whoosh_ and I looked down to see a muddy size 16 work boot connecting to my torso. My arms reached out for a handrail to catch my balance, but there wasn't one there.

Dad kicked me in the stomach, eyes bloodshot and dilated, and his body sweaty and tense.

The man wasn't really that angry about a silly little shirt, and I knew that.

He just wanted a "valid" reason to take his anger out on someone.

My heels made a scraping sound as the skidded against the top stairs before my body rolled and bumped it's way to the sidewalk at the bottom of the steps.

I rolled onto my back and put my hands on my stomach, wheezy gasps left my lips for a few seconds while I searched for breath.

My throat burned when air finally flushed into my system and I began to sit up to gather my bag.

Dad, however, was walking quickly down the steps with his beady little eyes boring into my soul.

Just as he went to grab my hair, I put my hands up and said, "Stop!"

The man froze, bewildered that I'd even think of talking back to him, but quickly understood when a couple of cars drove by slower than they should have been driving.

He forced a scary smile onto his lips before grabbing my bag and my arm, pulling me up and all but dragging me into the house.

I stumbled on the steps and almost fell again.

Once we were inside, the man shoved me towards the stairs and tossed my bag onto the stairs, a few pencils fell out of it and rolled loudly onto the linoleum.

I stood up and dusted myself off, rubbing my arm where he'd grabbed me.

There would be at least a light bruise there in the morning.

My dad was pacing back and forth in front of the door.

He kept running his hands through his short and spiky hair, seeming to pull it a bit.

The man looked as if he was fighting some demons.

His face and neck were red, and veins could be seen popping out of his neck.

We stayed where we both were for a few minutes, the only sound being his heavy footsteps and heavy breathing.

It sounded as though he had run miles.

I sheepishly glanced at my two pencils on the floor, debating whether or not I should try to gather them up and go upstairs quietly.

As soon as I turned to do so, the man bellowed with a raspy voice, "Where do you think you're going?"

My body froze mid reach and I quickly returned to face him, full height, "I was just gonna go do my homework, but if you need me to do something please let me know."

The man stalked up to me as if I had insulted him and he was planning on retaliating.

My eyebrows creased and I clenched my eyes shut when he yelled with his face not two inches away from mine, "Are you ignorant, Tenten? You can't just go behind my back like this and not expect there to be consequences!"

 _Really, man?_

 _It's a god damn shirt!_

My thoughts were sarcastic, but my body was frozen in wait for a physical blow.

I didn't have anything to say in return, so I just opened my eyes and lowered my head.

The man seemed to take this as acceptance and brought a rough hand up to grab my jaw.

He jerked my face up to look him in the eye and squeezed, "You know to look at me when I'm speaking to you."

I stared into his flaming gaze and attempted to nod, but his hold was too tight.

The man's skin felt like the old worn out leather from the seats of a beat up car and it rubbed my skin wrong.

His lips were chapped, and he looked like he hadn't shaved in at least a week, smelled like it too.

His breath wreaked of drugs and whisky, making it hard for me to keep a straight face.

This is the man who threatened me the night before we moved here.

He threatened to kill my mother if I acted up at the new school.

 _My mother had left for work, and I was told to pack my necessities and stick it in the car._

 _You see, Dad didn't tell us what he'd planned to do._

 _He just waited til I got my stuff in the car, told me to stay outside, and when he ran back out the front door, he told me to get in the car and don't look back._

 _He took us to a sketchy moving company that was probably illegal and probably usually smuggled drugs or other items._

 _After we'd dropped off our small amount of belongings and helped load it onto a beat up cargo ship, Dad's phone began to ring._

 _He picked it up with a smirk on his face and found out that our house had been burnt down in what looked to be an "electrical dysfunction"._

 _When we got back into the car to meet Mom at her workplace, I couldn't hold my tongue._

 _"You burnt it down on purpose, but why would you do that?"_

 _I thought about the luggage we'd just shipped out, "Where are we going?"_

 _The man pulled to the side of the road and put out his lights._

 _Unlike many other times when Dad acted recklessly, his face was calm and focused._

 _He looked me directly in the eyes, "I'll kill your mother."_

 _My heart sank and I felt tears prickling at the corners of my eyes, "W-what? Why? What's going on, Dad?"_

 _A swift sting hit my cheek and I tasted blood on the inside of my cheek._

 _"You know I don't like tears, Tenten. Dry it up or I'll kill her tonight."_

 _My heart was racing and I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing the salty drops back, "Please tell me what's going on."_

 _"We're moving to Konoha. You're going to a private school."_

 _My mouth opened to protest, but the man raised his hand again to shut me up before I even tried to interrupt, "Any back talk or crying from you and she's dead, you understand? I don't want to see one_ _tear from you in this new town or else."_

 _I still had so many questions, but instead I just nodded and stayed quiet_.

Back to the present, I was sweating anxiously by the time my jaw was released.

One of my hands moved to cover my mouth.

The copper taste of blood touched my tongue.

My teeth must have ground against the insides of my cheeks.

Dad backed up, but continued staring down at me.

I spoke cautiously, "Can I ask how your day was?"

 _ **Crack!**_

Heavy palms rested on my shoulders as a knee connected with my rib cage.

A startled cry escaped me and I sprawled onto the ground.

My arms wrapped around my torso and my vision went hazy.

I sensed my father's large body crouch behind me and smelled his horrible breath when he whispered into my ear, "Take a good guess."

I'm not sure if I passed out, or just how long I lay on the floor, but when I came to my senses my dad was long gone.

Mom was at work til ten o'clock, and Dad probably went to a bar or something.

I shakily got to my feet, only to double over in pain when I tried to take a step toward my bag.

It lay on the floor a few feet away and it had my cell phone inside.

Crawling carefully, I pulled my cellphone out and called Hinata's house phone number.

I would have called the police, but they would most likely notify my father and that's the last thing I want to do.

So I listened to the phone ring five times before an auto-mated voicemail popped up, "Hello. You are trying to reach the residence of Hyuga Hiashi, Hinata, Hanabi, and Neji. If you have business with Hiashi, please leave your name, number and reason for callin-" a smooth and cold voice interrupted the message, "Hyuga Residence."

I suddenly didn't know what to say, not that I knew what to say to start with.

My mouth hung agape for a few seconds before the voice spoke again, "Hello? I will hang up if you don't speak soon."

"A-ah please don't hang up!"

There was a pause, "Who is calling and who do you wish to speak to?"

The person sounded as if he suspected me of wasting his time.

"My name is Tenten and I'm a friend of Hinata's. Could you please put her on the phone? It's urgent."

My heartbeat was racing and sharp pains were running up and down my torso.

I had propped myself up against the wall by the stairs, facing the front door.

There was a silence for a minute or so and I almost thought that I'd been forgotten until a soft, "Hello? T-Tenten?"

My nerves were crazy and I felt as though I might faint, "Hinata do you know anything about first aid?"

The girl seemed to be giving the question some thought, "U-um, well, I do know some, why? What's wrong?"

I hissed as I pulled my shirt up to inspect the large bruise forming on my stomach, "Ah! Well, I kind of got hurt and I was wondering if I gave you my address, if you could come by and help me quickly? I don't need you to stay or anything. If it's too much trouble, please don't come."

More like she couldn't stay.

If I had someone over when Dad came home he'd beat the living hell out of me.

"O-o-of course, Tenten!"

I gave the girl my address and thanked her before hanging up.

I heard a car pull up in the driveway nearly ten minutes later, only I heard three car doors shut instead of one.

I was in panic until I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in!"

The door slowly opened and Hinata and three others slowly came into the house.

I had managed to gather my bag and make it to lounge on the couch.

I tried to smile, "Thank you for coming, I really appreciate it."

Hinata wasn't fooled and quickly came to stand in front of me, "W-what's wrong?"

I eyed the three others standing awkwardly at the door.

There was a pretty green-eyed girl with long pink hair. She stood just an inch or two above Hinata and lacked any real curves, but that didn't do too much to hinder her beauty.

A slightly curvaceous blond girl with bright blue eyes that had to be even taller than me stood behind the pink-haired one and had a hand on the girl's arm.

I couldn't tell if it was out of habit or nervousness.

The third person was a sporty looking blonde guy with dark blue eyes and tan skin.

He was almost as tall as my dad, and was staring intently at me, while the two other girls tried to politely pretend to admire the interior decor.

Hinata bravely lay a hand on my shoulder, bringing my attention back to her, "T-tenten, those are my friends and I'll introduce you as soon as you tell m-me what's going on."

With one last weary glance at the others, I gingerly lifted my shirt up just under my bra.

The two girls weren't being polite anymore.

The two and the blonde guy both joined Hinata in front of me, varying looks of bewilderment on their features.

No one spoke for a few seconds until the pink-haired one daringly lay a precise hand on my rib cage, earning a hiss and jump from me.

The girl halfway retracted her hand before speaking with a clear voice, "My name is Sakura and I'm going to be studying to be a doctor. I've taken a few pre-med classes so please let me just take a closer look, okay? I'm sorry we've had to meet under these circumstances."

The tone of her voice implied that "these circumstances" meant she thought that someone did this to me.

I got defensive, putting a fake easygoing smile on my face, "Hey, don't worry about it, right? I fell down the stairs when I got home. It's not the first time I've done it. I used to do it all the time at my old house, not on purpose of course! I don't self-harm!"

Oh God, I was babbling.

The girl gave me a stern look, but didn't say anything before once again feeling my ribs.

I was sweating and nearly cursing by the time she finished.

Her face was red from what looked like anger or stress, and she stood back up to full height.

The two other strangers sat on the floor a few feet away and watched silently, but Hinata stood next to Sakura and watched her every move with what looked like worry in her eyes.

Her concern nearly had me in tears, but I had other things to focus on right now, like how Sakura confirmed that I may have broken a rib and maybe cracked a few.

The girl immediately took charge and pointed at the blonde boy.

He quickly jumped to his feet. "Naruto, call an ambulance."

So his name is Naruto.

Both Naruto and I objected, for different reasons of course. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Why don't we just drive her? We have a car, " and I all but yelled, "No! They'll send cops with them and that's just too much of a hassle."

 _Do I really need to explain why I don't want cops around?_

The blond girl stood up and spoke in a surprisingly light voice, "Okay, we should drive her there. We wouldn't want her neighbors to freak out seeing an ambulance at the new families' house."

Hinata spoke up again, "That's Ino, by the way. Is it alright with you if we take you to the emergency room?"

I nodded and silently thanked Ino for saving me from the police.

After all of us struggled to get out to the car without me falling or crying, Sakura began the drive to the hospital.

I was in the passenger seat, a death grip on the panic handles.

I was trying to buffer any movement.

With it being quiet, I didn't want it to be awkward so I spoke up, "I don't want to sound rude, but how come you brought them along Hinata?"

Ino spoke up this time, her previously soft voice a bit louder and happy, "We all have math class together so we were studying at Hinata's. She said she invited you, but you couldn't come, " she gave a little snort, "Maybe we wouldn't be in this predicament if you'd just come over."

Naruto laughed loudly before adding on, "Nah, if she's that clumsy, she'd probably end up tripping and breaking something and Hiashi would try to assassinate her."

We all gave a little laugh.

Hinata had told me that her father was extremely strict and formal, even to family.

So, if a complete stranger like me did something like that, he'd have my hide.

We eventually pulled into the parking lot and Naruto ran up to the doors to grab a wheelchair so I wouldn't have to walk.

I muttered under my breath about this being embarrassing, but Sakura just patted my shoulder and gave me a smile.

Naruto insisted on pushing me in the chair.

Only when he took off a little too fast-paced did I realize that he was trying to kill me.

Despite my ribs killing me, I laughed loudly, yelling, "Naruto no! We're gonna wreck!"

I could hear Sakura shouting curses at him from down the hall as he slowed us down so the others could catch up.

The young man was laughing until Sakura came up and smacked the back of his head, a temple throbbing on her forehead, "You could have hurt her even more, you idiot!"

Ino and Hinata laughed at this, so I assumed it was a normal thing.

Once I'd been checked in and the x-rays had been taken, we all found out that I was a lucky girl.

I didn't break any ribs, but did have two cracked ones that I'd have to be weary of for the next two weeks.

Once I'd been given a doctors slip to excuse me from physical education, we all headed out.

I knew that Dad would eventually find out that I'd been to the hospital because I had to give my health insurance information to be seen.

However, I've had to get myself to the hospital multiple times before, and he doesn't get too angry at that.

This time I didn't do it all by myself though.

I looked to my side to see Hinata sleeping with her head resting on Naruto's shoulder.

She didn't seem to fall there on purpose, but Naruto didn't seem to mind.

In fact, the blush dusting his cheeks told me that he quite liked having her there.

I quickly turned my gaze away before I could be caught looking and smiled to myself.

Hinata and I did all of that bonding and she didn't bother telling me that she had a boyfriend?

My inner gossiping teenage girl gave a cliche _gasp_.

What if they're not dating yet?

I felt mischievous.

How sly of her to keep these things from me.

Ino and Sakura were having a quiet conversation about some tv show they were both watching.

After listening in for a bit, I realized it was Project Runway they were talking about.

Apparently Ino wanted to be a clothing designer after she finished college.

She did seem to be the more fashion-forward girl of the group.

I knew already that Sakura wants to be a doctor, but what about Naruto and Hinata?

I'd have to ask them.

I glanced at each of the car's inhabitants' faces again and smiled.

Hopefully there will be plenty of time to talk about things like that.

* * *

Once we pulled up to my house, I gingerly exited the car with a hundred thank you's leaving my lips.

The hospital had given me some pain killers so I could move around much easier.

I waited until the green Prius was past the end of the road to face my house.

The kitchen light was on and that was it.

Dad's car was still gone, so it must be Mom in there.

Without roughing myself up anymore, I hurried up the steps and into the house.

"Where the **hell** have you been?!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Now, this chapter does contain rated M material.**

 **You've been warned.**

 **I'm also very sorry for the slight wait for the chapter, I've had a pretty busy work schedule and my own mother got married.**

 **Anyway, please enjoy the chapter and I appreciate any/all reviews/follows/favorites.**

 **Have a wonderful day!**

* * *

The hysterical hitch in Mom's voice made me flinch as I slipped off my shoes by the door.

I could smell something cooking on the stove, and my stomach gave a loud rumble as if the smell had reminded it that I hadn't eaten since around one o'clock.

My mother stood with a dirty apron over purple pajamas, one hand on her hip and the other resting on one of the dining room chairs.

I placed my bookbag on the table and watched all of the anger leave her face as she saw the hospital bracelet on my wrist.

Her tense posture vanished and she rushed up to me.

Her soft hands quickly wondered over my hair, face, shoulders, and arms to check for injuries.

When she only found a slight bruise on my arm, she stared up at me with big eyes and a worried frown, "Tenten what happened, dear? The house smells horribly of alcohol and your father isn't anywhere in sight."

I hesitated for a moment before stepping back from the frantic woman.

She had a tendency to blame everything on herself, and each time something like this happens it kills me to see her heart break at the sight of injuries.

That first time Dad had hit me and I had to have my head stapled, Mom had went to bed with me for each night for a whole week after I was released from the hospital.

She would wait until she thought I was asleep and cry and cry and cry.

I wasn't asleep, of course, and the memories of that time made my heart ache.

Mom's eyes widened when I lifted my shirt to show her the medicated gauze wrapped around my torso.

A small bit of the bruising was visible on the edges of the bandaging.

It was silent for a moment, and I clenched my eyes shut just waiting for her to freak out, and she did.

She began crying, and once sniffling met my ears, I opened my eyes to see her leaning over onto the table.

Her elbows supported her and her face hung in her hands.

I immediately dropped my shirt and pulled my mother up to face me by her wrists.

Tears streaked her red cheeks, and her dark brown eyes struggled to stay open with thick tears falling from her lashes.

"Mom stop! None of this is your fault, "I pulled the shaking woman into a tight hug, "You're the only one that cares for me, so if anything I should be thanking you. I love you, Momma. Stop crying, I love you."

I rocked her and smoothed her hair until her sniffling ceased.

When she was feeling better, it was nearly midnight and I had to be getting ready for bed.

I'd taken advantage of the long waiting time at the hospital and got my homework done in the waiting room.

Mom pulled away from me and ran her hands over her face once more to dry any wetness left.

She looked so much older right now than she ever has.

Her eyes were tired and her skin seemed to have more wrinkles than ever.

She looked dead on her feet.

Headlights showed through the window for just a moment, signalling that someone was pulling into the driveway, and we both knew that he was home.

The loud creek of his door opening made us both snap out of our dazes.

The shorter woman quickly ripped herself away from me and almost roughly shoved my book bag into my arms and gave me a shove in the general direction of the stairs.

I threw out one more hushed I love you before hurrying up to my room.

Once the door was shut, I slid down to the floor with my back against the solid wood.

If the man became too violent down there, I would definitely hear it.

Something in me has changed.

Maybe it's the small sliver of happiness that having friends is granting me, or maybe it's the feeling of a new beginning at this town that had me feeling brave.

The moment I heard the front door open, I heard the sound of breaking glass.

My mind showed me pictures of Dad throwing a bottle at my mom and my teeth grit.

A small scream from my mom was heard before it was silenced and I could hear rustling downstairs.

They had to be wrestling. My heart sank to my stomach and a cold sweat appeared over my forehead.

My body acted on it's own and stood up while yanking open my bedroom door.

My breath was labored as I crept into the hallway.

I crawled on my hands and knees over to glance down the stairway, hoping to get a glance of what was going on down there.

A loud thumping began meeting my ears once the barrier of my bedroom door was removed.

I could indeed see a few pieces of shattered glass on the floor near the dining room table, and one of the chairs was toppled over.

I couldn't see either my mother or father, but the thumping was getting louder and rougher.

I couldn't tell if it was my heartbeat or not anymore.

It felt as though my whole body was pulsing with fear and adrenaline as I carefully crawled down a few steps to get a view of the whole dining room.

I slapped my hand over my mouth when a disgusted gasp slipped out.

He was raping her.

The closer I got, the more noticeable the sick sound of skin slapping together became.

My stomach churned with the urge to throw up and get out of there quick.

My mom's dress was pushed up to her waist and her underwear were ripped and lay uselessly on the floor under my dad's feet.

I couldn't see any skin because dad had left his jeans on and just undid his belt and zipper, his body blocking my view of Mom's body as well.

The man's hands were holding her down against the table, one against her neck, the other roughly kneading at her breasts.

Tears were prickling at my eyes, but I itched them away.

The adrenaline I'd once felt was fading fast, and I knew that if I didn't do something now, I was going to chicken out.

The moment I moved to take a step, Mom's eyes met mine and she stared at me guiltily.

Dad leaned over her shoulder, and she motioned behind his back to get away.

My mouth was slack and I'm sure my face was ten shades of red, but I froze. I shook my head slowly and inched closer.

Her signals became more desperate and tears fell from her eyes.

She mouthed, "Please!" at me before clenching her eyes shut.

I don't know why, but I listened.

 ** _I fucking listened to her._**

In defeat, I snuck back up the stairs and silently shut my bedroom door behind me.

Father's groans and the thumping became much quieter, but I still couldn't block out the sound.

I had returned to my original position with my back against the door.

A few tears managed to slide down my cheeks and I didn't bother wiping them away.

He can't see me right now, and I'm not planning on letting myself slip up again.

As the pounding finally came to an end, I drew my knees up to my chest and buried my face against them.

I couldn't do anything.

 _What if this happens all the time?_

 _How long has she been suffering through this?_

* * *

Before I knew it, I was waking up.

-I somehow managed to stay in my position against the door all night.

The muscles in my back and legs ached as I stood up to check behind my bedroom's blinds.

It was still dark out.

I took the time to do some stretches, my body screaming at me to stop moving and just lay in bed for a bit.

After a few minutes, the ache dulled and I was able to ready myself for a shower.

My room was one of three rooms on the second floor.

To my surprise, I'd been given the master bedroom with the built in bathroom and large windows.

My parents' room was on the first floor, and was nearly as big, but with no connected bathroom.

Their's was down the hall from the dining room.

The other two rooms upstairs were Dad's private room, which neither my mother or I had never seen the inside of because he kept it locked up at all times.

The other was just a storage room for all of the extra stuff that we didn't really need out all of the time, like Christmas decorations and family photos albums.

I stripped myself of clothes and tossed them into the hamper in the corner of the bathroom.

Everything in the room was white and black, no patterns or anything.

The walls and floor were all white, while the shower curtain and bathmats were black.

A large mirror covered the wall behind the large bathroom sink and counter and a wall separated the sink from the toilet area.

The bathroom door had a mirror covering the entire back of it, top to bottom.

-I was thankful for that feature because I could see my entire body in case I had to cover up marks on my legs, which normally wouldn't be noticeable with a mirror like the one behind the sink.

Since the school uniform included a skirt, I wanted to be extra cautious.

I surveyed my body under the harsh lighting.

The bandages around my waist were removed and disposed of.

I winced at the dark swirls of bruising that plagued my torso.

My ribs did not hurt, thanks to the medication I was on, but the sight of my skin mentally hurt my self esteem.

The hand shaped bruise around my arm was quickly healing, already a yellowish shade of brown and almost undetectable on my tan skin.

With a sigh, I turned away from the mirror and started the shower, giving it a few seconds to get hot before stepping in and letting the water wash away any sleepiness left.

My head rested against the wall as the hot water massaged my back and shoulders.

Steam licked the walls and ceiling, my skin turning more red the longer I stay still.

 _About last night, again, what if Dad treating Mom the way he did is a reoccurring thing?_

 _Why hasn't she told me?_

The moment I thought that, I knew the answer.

She knew that I'd try to stop him if I knew.

I may have let it happen last night, but if it happened often, I'd eventually intervene.

 _How horrible is that?_

I felt my face distort in disgust as I began washing myself.

 _I'm such a fucking coward._

 _I can't even help the one person who's done everything for me._

Tears welled up in my eyes once more and I immediately threw my hands down to my sides in fists.

 ** _That's enough!_**

 ** _You're going to stop this, Tenten!_**

I forced a smile onto my lips and took a deep breath.

 _This is a new home, a new city, a new start._

 _You've made a few friends and you're going to stop looking at the bad things going on._

 _You're going to try your damn-dist to be happy._

 ** _You can do this._**

This time with more energy, I resumed washing my body before rinsing and finishing up with washing my hair and shutting off the shower.

Once I'd rung out my hair, I towel-dried it for a minute before letting it fall down my back and drying my body.

I stared at the fogged up mirror across from me with a straight face as I put my hair into it's buns.

I didn't need to see it to do it, for I'd done it so many times it just came natural.

Today will be a good day.

I have to be sure of it or perhaps my happy facade will struggle to stay intact.

* * *

That same dog barked at me as I walked calmly down the sidewalk towards the school.

A smile graced my lips when he came up to the fence and jumped a few times, barking a few more times, but eventually giving up once I'd passed his yard.

I'd never had a dog, and I probably won't be getting one until I live on my own.

The air was less humid today, and the wind even made some of the hairs on my arms prickle.

The sky was dull and cloudy, hinting that it was going to rain during the school hours.

The school came into sight and my pace quickened in the slightest.

I could see small groups of students talking to each other on the lawn and I was eager to see if my new friends would be there.

The moment I'd passed the beautiful rose bushes, a head of pink hair met my eyes just a few yards away.

Sakura!

A smile came to my face instantly and I leaned in to jog over, but was quickly stopped.

A group of girls blocked my path, standing in formation like they had practiced and been assigned places to stand within their group.

The one front and center was, surprise surprise, Karin.

My smile disappeared, but I didn't want any trouble so I bowed my head politely and gave a short, "Morning, " to the group.

The girl's heavily make-uped eyes slit at me and a scowl graced her plump lips.

The other girls looked up to Karin uneasily, seeming to question her response.

Karin herself glared at me for a few seconds before sighing and closing her eyes before running a hand through her hair and speaking in a husky voice, "I came to apologize."

My eyes widened, and fists that I didn't know had formed at my sides released themselves, "You what?"

My mouth had to be hanging open in surprise. Hinata, Ino, and Sakura had told me about how ruthless Karin could be, and they said she never apologizes for anything.

She even blamed Hinata for "making her bully her".

Karin's eyes shot open and she burst out laughing, her friends laughing nervously along with her, glancing down at me and then back to her.

"Panda, are you ignorant? Mentally challenged? I would never apologize to you, or anyone for that matter."

My mouth clamped shut and I glared up at the taller girl for a second before a smirk melted my sneer, "I do apologize to people. In fact, I think I'd apologize to your parents."

The group of girls' eyes immediately turned into glares and I could feel the tension.

Karin leaned in close to my face and raised an eyebrow, daring me to say something bad about her, "Oh yeah? and why is that?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ino take notice of Karin and I and she and the others began inching closer to us, watching just in case something got out of hand.

"I'm sure they're going to be grandparents at a young age, and no one wants to be a grandparent under forty."

Karin immediately raised a fist, her manicured nails digging into her palm, but she backed off instantly when she saw my group of friends come to stand behind me.

Her hand dropped to her side and a mocking laugh escaped her lips, "What is this? Are you all seriously going to stand up to us?"

She raised her arms up to gesture to her group of friends, who were looking more and more uncomfortable by the minute, "Do you honestly think a bunch of losers like you could even touch us?"

Ino stepped in front of me and put a hand up in Karin's face before rolling her eyes and crossing her arms, resting on a hip, "Karin, enough with the bravado. We all know that you peed the bed until you were fourteen. Just go away, no one cares about you here."

My mouth fell open in shock.

Holy shit!

I thought it was going to be tense and that Karin would lunge at Ino, but her group of girls took a step back from her and the one with the green hair dared to whisper, "Is that true, Karin?"

Karin's neck looked like it would snap, as fast as she turned on the girl.

She didn't say anything, but her face got as red as her hair and she looked at everyone around before turning back to look at Ino, "T-that's not true!"

All of us could tell that Ino had hit a nail on the head.

Karin ignored the green haired girl's question and said a loud, "Fuck you, Yamanaka. You're a damn pig!"before leading her group away.

Everyone could see that her little posse followed her a little less enthusiastically than before.

Naruto's loud laugh erupted from behind us and I nearly jumped out of my skin when he put his hands on my shoulders and shook me a few times from behind.

Soon all of us were laughing and I had to hold my waist once it was over.

Sakura eventually smacked Naruto over the head, yelling, "You know she's hurt. Don't shake her like that, you idiot!"

So it was a normal thing!

Everyone turned to me expectantly and I nearly yelled in surprise, " Oh! I'm sorry! Thank you for your help. She probably would of beat me up if you hadn't come along."

Ino lay an arm lazily over my shoulders and tossed her other hand carelessly, "It's no biggie. I used to be a part of that little group, back in middle school."

So that's how she knew how to hit Karin's nerves.

I laughed again, but Ino jumped, removing her arm from me and gasped, "Oh my gosh, we all totally forgot to introduce you to the rest of the guys!"

Only now did I notice that there were more people in the group than just the one's I'd been with last night.

She gestured to a tall young man, who seemed shorter than he was because he was slouching with a tired look in his eyes, "This is Shikamaru Nara. His and my family have been very close since pretty much the beginning of time so that's how he's here with us."

She elbowed him in the ribs and he threw a weak glare at her before rolling his eyes and just looking up at the cloudy sky.

Ino continued, "He normally wouldn't go out of his way to make friends, but if you've got the connections, "she gestured to herself as the "connection", "you don't have to work that hard for it."

I gave him a smile, to which he nodded, and Ino moved on the next one.

It was the dark haired, quiet kid from my maths class that wouldn't talk to me.

"This is Sasuke Uchiha. We told you about him last night, right?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the introduction, but didn't ask about anything, just giving a slight nod, not even looking me in the eye.

Naruto punched his arm, to which Sasuke glared at him for, "Come on, you dick! Tenten's cool! Don't be such a tightwad."

I laughed again as Sakura hit Naruto across the head, muttering, "Idiot."

What didn't go unnoticed was the blush that momentarily dusted the pinkette's cheeks when she looked up at Sasuke, only for him to give her a nod of appreciation, and for her to quickly turn away from him.

His glare weakened only slightly when he looked at her, before turning back to watch Ino's last introduction.

Ino gestured to a tall brunette young man with hair as long as mine tied together at the end.

He had eyes similar to Hinata's, only his were more pearly in that they lacked the tint of lavender that Hinata's had.

"This is Neji Hyuga. He's Hinata's cousin, and is pretty much only here because she's here, but we love him even if he tells us that we're annoying."

I gave a smile and a nod to him, to which he gave a polite yet curt nod and a quiet, "Nice to meet you."

My eyes widened and my smile dropped. I stepped a bit closer to him, "You're the one who answered the phone yesterday at Hinata's?"

The tall man looked down at me with a stoic expression, "Hm."

I felt my cheeks heat up.

Oh, he's hot.

His voice is so low it feels like it's rumbling through my whole body, but he could at least use real words, "Is that supposed to be a yes?"

"Hm."

Okay, my fangirling moment is over.

"Do you not use real words or what?"

Neji's look became annoyed, as did mine, "HM."

He said it deliberately this time and I didn't know what to do so I just turned my back to him and shook my head, "My first impression of you is that you are a weirdo."

Naruto, again, broke the silence with a rambunctious laugh and he said, "I can tell that you're going to fit right in with us!"

I blanked and blushed before putting my hands up defensively, "Ah! It's nice to meet you all, by the way!"

Everyone began talking and hanging out, trying to get a lot of socializing before the warning bell rang, when I noticed Hinata's blush.

She was standing next to me, listening carefully as Sakura and Ino talked about a new movie that they wanted to go see with everyone next week with a big blush on her face.

She kept glancing up to the person on her other side.

Naruto stood next to her with his arms over her and Sakura's shoulders.

I knew it!

Last night when she fell asleep on him he was blushing, and now she's blushing at him!

I concluded that they weren't dating yet, otherwise he probably would have kissed her or something by now.

He struck me as the touchy feely kind of boyfriend, and he just treats her the same way as he treats everyone, if not a little extra kindness in her direction.

Nudging Hinata's arm lightly, I motioned for her to listen to me for a second.

She leaned her ear towards me and I whispered in her ear.

No one noticed us talking. "Do you like Naruto?"

The girl jumped up, her hands clasping in front of her with her eyes wide and pleading for me to be quiet.

Naruto glanced down at her sudden movement before turning back to the others' conversation.

I smiled down at her when she looked at him for a second and looked back at me with a small nod.

She diverted her eyes to the ground and whispered, "P-please don't tell anyone..."

My smile widened and she looked scared that I was making fun of her.

I shook my head and made a zipper gesture over my lips.

* * *

The day went by slowly, each class more boring than the day before, now that all of the introductions had been finished.

I had moved to sit with everyone during math, and Sasuke came down from his solitary seat as well.

Thank god Hinata was taking serious notes, because none of us were really paying attention.

We were all writing notes and giggling the whole class long.

I had second class with Neji, Ino, and Shikamaru.

In fact, at least two of my new friends were in each of my classes.

My last class, physical education, had every single one of us!

What are the chances, huh?

Once lunchtime came around, we all had to push two tables together for all of us to fit.

I met Sakura's cousins that were exchange students from Suna.

There were two boys, and a girl.

The girl seemed to have an attitude problem, but was also polite to me.

I noticed that she kept looking at Shikamaru, and that Ino kept looking at her. I wonder what that's about.

Anyway, everyone was talking about Hinata and Neji's family, which is famous in case you didn't know.

They were like the Kardashians, only less slutty and with money that was actually earned from work.

In fact, the only reason that Neji and Hinata aren't constantly being followed around by cameras is because Hinata's father had released a warning to all paparazzi that they'd be arrested if their interference eventually caused problems for Neji or Hinata's school grades.

Once in a while, I was told by Hinata, a daring photographer would try to get some information from them or their friends for tabloids.

I nodded, wondering if I would ever be approached by someone like that.

I'd probably be stunned into silence if the time ever came.

I felt a vibration from the pocket on the inside of my skirt and excused myself to the hallway outside of the cafeteria to take the call.

The school didn't allow cellphones to be used freely, so I was glancing around to be sure no teachers were lurking nearby.

"Hello?"

"You get home this instant or so help me God, you're going to regret it, Tenten."

My blood ran cold, "Dad?"


	6. Chapter 6

Dad yelled so loudly over the receiver that I had to move the phone away from my ear and glance around to see if anyone was around to hear him.

The last thing I needed was Asuma or Kakashi taking my cellphone away.

My father would really have my ass for that one.

If I got detention, oh my word, I'd probably have to stay home for a week just so no one would see the marks.

My heart stopped when I saw Hinata and Naruto staring at me a few feet away.

Naruto's hands were holding one of Hinata's hands, and it seemed to be bleeding.

She must've sliced it at lunch and they were on their way to the nurse's office to patch it up.

I nearly dropped the phone, but knew that it wouldn't be a good idea, so I shakily replied to Father with my eyes never leaving the two standing near me, "I'll be home soon. Please don't do anything to Mom, okay?"

My eyes trailed to the ground, ashamed, as Naruto's face grew red with anger.

"If you get here quickly, I won't have to. Make it quick, Tenten."

He hung up and I placed my phone back into my skirt's pocket.

I put my hands up defensively and felt my face drain as I opened my mouth to speak.

I never got a chance to try to come up with an excuse.

Hinata had tears filling her eyes and she let out a whispered, "Tenten what is g-going on?"

Her usually red cheeks were pale and her warm eyes were cold and accusing.

My mouth went dry and I rubbed my palms against my stomach, wiping the sweat on my uniform.

My mouth reopened and closed again.

I didn't know how to tell her, or even what I should tell her.

I heard footsteps coming up behind me, and Naruto's eyes locked onto whoever it was.

Principal Tsunade was striding over to us with curiosity on her features.

Her heels let out a steady click on the floor with each step she took.

She was walking firmly, so she probably wasn't as drunk as she was yesterday.

"Hello Tenten, Hinata, Naruto, " she looked at each of us as she said our names, before turning her caramel colored eyes to me with raised eyebrows, "I had come to remind you that you didn't turn in your signature sheet after school yesterday, but it seems I've stumbled into a serious conversation."

She glanced at Naruto with a glare, "Mind telling me what's going on?"

My eyes shot to Naruto's and he glanced at me, still red in the face with anger.

He probably assumed the worst, and he was probably spot on.

I gave him a pleading look, shaking my head no desperately.

He stared at me for a few seconds, causing Tsunade to glance back at me before hardening her glare on the blond boy, "Well?"

Naruto's eyes never left mine as he sighed and spoke in defeat, "Nothing's going on, Grandma. We're just taking Hinata to the nurse's office to get some bandages."

Tsunade finally noticed a very pale Hinata who was standing in front of Naruto with her eyes shut and her arms shaking.

She seemed to be trying not to cry.

My heart clenched.

Wouldn't it just make things worse if they knew?

We had all only been friends for less than 24 hours, yet I felt like I'd known these people for all of my life.

The last thing I wanted was to make them worry.

"Ms. Hyuga, would you like me to escort you?"

Hinata's eyes shot open and she looked up at the stern principal, "N-no, that's okay. Thank you, b-but I'd rather have Tenten and Naruto take me."

I just stood frozen throughout the whole conversation.

What am I supposed to do?

My fresh start facade was slowly starting to dissipate, and the harsh reality of my situation was setting onto my shoulders.

Tsunade seemingly shrugged and went into the cafeteria to talk to Asuma about switching lunch duty with Kurenai.

We only had about ten minutes left of lunch, and I felt the need to get home quickly hit me like a brick.

Once Tsunade was out of earshot, Hinata repeated her earlier question, this time without stuttering,"Tenten, what is going on?"

I gulped down air, my mouth dry, meeting her gaze unsteadily, "I-I really need to go home right now."

Naruto released Hinata's bleeding hand and stepped around her, backing me against the wall with a determined look on his tanned face, "Tenten, we are your friends now. You can tell us what's going on and we'll do what we can to help you. We're not going to judge you, you know that right?"

My face turned red guiltily.

Of course they wouldn't judge me, I knew that.

What I was worried about is them trying to help me.

They could get into harm's way if they found out and tried to act on it.

Naruto seemed to notice that I wasn't going to spill and put his arms on either side of my head, against the wall, "We're not going to let you go if you don't tell us what's going on."

I glanced at Hinata, who nodded her head firmly, a frown on her lips.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the wall in defeat, "My dad has been hurting my mother and I since I was little."

Naruto stepped away from me, giving me my space.

No one said anything for a minute, and I didn't open my eyes until Hinata finally broke the silence, "So yesterday, y-you-"

I cut her off, "I didn't fall down the stairs. Well, I did, but it wasn't an accident."

Both of my friends got silent for another second before Naruto punched the wall near my head.

I looked up in shock at his red face, his eyes even seeming to tint red as he glared at the ground, "I'm going to kill him."

He removed his now bleeding hand from the wall and turned to face the direction of the lunch room, "I'm going to get the guys and we're going to go with you."

I grabbed his arm before he could take off and pulled him, "No! Don't, please don't!"

My voice hitched as if I was crying, and I had to stop and hold back a wave of tears before meeting Naruto's disbelieving eyes, "The police have no power over him, and he knows how to fight very well. Just...Just let me go home and I promise to get a hold of all of you as soon as I can. Please."

Hinata grabbed Naruto's other arm and looked at him with a question in her eyes.

I could tell they were both not wanting to go along with this.

Of course they wouldn't.

It's retarded to know someone is being hurt and not do anything to stop it.

I would know, I've been watching my mother be hurt for years.

I took Hinata's free hand and gave her a pleading look, "Please guys. I know it's not a good idea, but we can't just go in and fight him like that. He'd end up killing someone."

I was referring to my mother, but they didn't know about that part.

Naruto clenched his eyes shut before pulling his arms away from Hinata and I and taking a step back.

He reopened them and pointed a finger at me with a glare, "I'll go along with this on two conditions."

"What?" I replied.

Hinata looked up at him like he was crazy.

"The others have to know about this, and we should all have a backup plan in case you need somewhere to hide out for a while."

Just the thought of Ino or Sakura finding out made my skin prickle.

Those two would be beyond pissed.

I didn't know the other guys too well yet, but I could tell they wouldn't be happy about the situation.

However, as the bell to release lunch began ringing, I nodded and whispered, "Okay, but you guys tell them. I have to go, like now. I'll text you asap. I promise."

I began stepping away from the two and they looked hurt, I lifted a hand in their direction as I quickly walked away, "I'm sorry, I've gotta go! I'll see you later."

Without looking back at them, I hurried out of the side doors of the school, not caring if they caught me on one of the cameras.

* * *

As I walked home with a quick pace, I thought about my friends.

Thinking about other things helped me stay calm as I entered the mouth of the demon.

As cliche as it seemed even to me, they were all kind of paired up.

No one was officially dating, I'd figured out.

Sakura has liked Sasuke since they were in elementary school, but no one knows if Sasuke is even straight because he's never dated or shown interest in anyone.

Apparently Ino used to have a crush on him as well.

Her and Sakura had been enemies for the longest time until Ino's mom died and the petty fighting ended as soon as Sakura found out.

They told me that they realized there were bigger things in life to worry about than boys.

So Ino's crush eventually faded and she gave up on liking Sasuke, choosing to help Sakura try to get him instead.

Now, Ino didn't tell me why she gave up on Sasuke, but something told me it had something to do with Shikamaru.

Neither Sakura or Ino said anything about him, but every time Sakura's cousin, Temari, would try to talk to him, Ino would bristle up and get this sad look on her face.

Shikamaru seemed indifferent to everything around him, ignoring both Ino and Temari.

I figured that was a love triangle.

Hinata and Naruto were obviously getting closer and closer.

Hinata had told me during gym, while we were paired up to do stretches that during the past week, her and Naruto had become closer than they ever had been.

He even invited her over to watch movies at his place.

She had a cute little blush on her face, and said that it didn't happen because she'd fainted when he'd asked and he just didn't bring it up again.

That left Neji, Gaara, and Kankuro.

I wasn't really interested in either of the Suna boys, even though they were both incredibly attractive.

Neji's stoic face entered my mind, causing my stride to slow in the slightest.

His pearly eyes seemed to take in all information during conversations.

He rarely spoke, but was always listening.

I sat next to him during Math and Science, and it was kind of awkward at first.

He politely greeted me, but afterwards payed attention only to the conversation of the rest of our friends and the lesson going on in class.

I clenched my fists and picked my pace back up.

Tomorrow I'll try to talk to him.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't interested in him.

This interest was solely based on looks right now because I had nothing else to go off of, but hopefully it would blossom into something more.

When my house came up into view, I saw Dad's car in the driveway.

He'd somehow already gotten the scratch from yesterday removed.

I trekked up the steps, taking two at a time before entering the house.

Where is he?

Not one sign of him lay waiting.

His big boots weren't laying by the door, and I couldn't smell any drugs.

The smell of liquor met my nose once I'd shut the door behind me and sat my bag on the dining room table.

"Dad?"

No one answered me, so I took a seat in one of the dining room chairs and pulled out my math homework from this morning.

No sooner had I pulled the textbook out, a rough hand covered my mouth and the cold chill of metal met my neck.

My eyes widened and my startled cry was muffled.

I could feel the heat of his body against my back, even through the wood of the chair.

Visions of what happened last night swept through my mind and I felt the urge to throw up, my eyes squeezing shut.

"Don't you fight with me, you hear?"

His words were slightly slurred, just enough to tell he'd had a few.

I didn't know if he wanted me to nod or say yes that I understood, but before I could try either, the knife at my neck disappeared and the chair I was in was thrown back wards.

My head hit the ground with a sickening _crack!_ and I saw stars.

Leaving no time for me to recover, my father ripped me off of the ground by my shirt and pulled me up against his body.

My eyes watered slightly as his breath burned my eyes.

Beady little slits stared down at me as he spoke in a voice much calmer than his appearance, "I know you were watching last night."

My mouth opened slightly to reply, but I felt one of his hands snaking down towards my bottom.

Chills ran up my spine, and not the good ones.

A squeak escaped me when he roughly grabbed me and I felt like dying.

He wouldn't do something like that to me, would he?

"Did you enjoy the show, Tenten? Did you go upstairs and touch yourself afterwards?"

Vomit rose in my throat, but I bit it back and spoke breathlessly, "N-no, I didn't!"

How disgusting he is!

I was quickly backed up against the wall beside the table, his body pushing so hard against mine that it was hard to breathe.

One of his hands held the knife against my throat and the other roughly pulled the buttons of my shirt apart, ripping a few off.

They bounced loudly against the hardwood floor.

What is he doing?

He wouldn't touch me like that, would he?

I'm his daughter!

Alas, a rough hand cupped one of my breasts over the black bra that he had, thankfully, not ripped off.

He brought his face down close to mine like he was going to kiss me, but just smirked as fear shook my body.

"Do you like this?"

My whole body was screaming to get away from him.

My legs and arms were shaking and the knife was just being pushed further into my skin.

I got onto my tiptoes to try and distance my neck from the blade, but he just moved it up.

An estranged gasp left my lips when the hand holding the knife brought it back and began thrusting it towards me.

My eyes squeezed shut and a holler left me when the blade grazed my shoulder, only to go through my shirt and into the wall.

His body left mine and he stepped back to admire his work.

He went to the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of vodka from the freezer before walking back to stand a few feet in front of me.

The way his eyes ran over my body as he chugged the drink made me ashamed of myself.

No father should look at his own daughter like that.

Minutes passed, the only sound being my hard breathing and the chugging of the drink.

I moved my arms to try and cover my body, but he spoke up after swallowing, "No no, dunt covr up!"

His words were slurring more than before.

He was getting trashed.

My body didn't listen, and the man slapped my arms away from my chest.

The man just stared at me for a few more minutes, finishing off over half of the large bottle before taking another few steps back, standing in front of the front door.

I thought he was maybe going to leave and thanked the heavens, but he swiftly turned to face me and threw the almost empty bottle at the wall to my right.

I swiftly turned my head to the left and grit my teeth as the bottle shattered and I could feel a few pieces of glass embed themselves into my leg and right side.

I hissed and turned to look at the man.

He smiled at his handiwork, boots crunching over the broken glass as he walked up to press himself against me once more, "I cant halp but think that yuh like this kinda thing."

A sadistic smile graced his chapped lips and I turned my face to the side, away from him.

I couldn't breathe with his weight on me and his breath choking me.

"Look ah me."

I didn't.

I couldn't.

A growl rumbled through his muscular chest, vibrating my own.

His hands roughly lifted my skirt and he shoved a leg in between mine, "Ah said look ah me, Bitch!"

My eyes shot to his in surprise.

His leg rubbed roughly against my lady parts, not feeling good at all.

My hands weakly pushed against his chest, "Please, Dad. Please s-stop."

It was taking everything in me not to cry.

Blood was trickling down my arm, staining my shirt a dark crimson.

The shards of glass wouldn't cause too much bleeding until they were removed.

His hands were gripping my hips, the calloused skin leaving scratches where he pulled.

He pulled my hips back and forth, pushing himself against me.

God, it hurt.

My eyes didn't leave his face in fear that he'd take it to the next step if I disobeyed him again.

My face was burning in embarrassment.

"See? Yuh do like it, you 'lil slut."

I didn't dare look down at the bulge that was pressing against me.

The hands on my hips suddenly moved lower to grasp the hem of my panties and the blood drained from my face.

Thankfully, a loud beeping erupted from his jeans and Dad pulled away from me, my skirt falling back down to cover my underwear.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a disposable flip phone, opening it and practically hollering into it, "What?"

I was still panting.

How close he'd come to removing my underwear.

Would he really go through with it.

After seeing what he did to Mom, I didn't doubt it.

My heart was beating so fast and my vision was blurry, but I held on.

The man paced back and forth after hanging up his phone.

My eyes met his jeans and saw that he was still hard, making me gag in disgust.

He looked at me as the sound escaped my lips, "Ah gotta go to thah docks."

The docks?

Does he mean the place where the shady boats that brought our luggage were?

He quickly returned to his place against me, looking me dead in the eye before crouching in front of me.

Before I could react, he'd pushed my skirt up again and was pulling my panties down.

My hands pushed against his shoulders with everything I had, but he didn't budge.

"Stop!"

The thin cloth reached my knees and the man stood back up, pushing my hands above my head with one of his large ones.

"Please dont!"

My heart pounded in my ears and I was gasping for breath.

The man's free hand ran down under my once-again-fallen skirt and roughly rubbed against my womanhood, not gentle in the least.

A painful gasp escaped me.

My whole body shook and I could feel bile rising in my throat.

If he didn't get away from me, I was going to blow chunks all over him.

To my surprise, after just a few more strokes, the man removed his hands from me all together and stepped away from me.

He smiled at my face, which had to be turning green, "Ah guess is gotta wait."

With one more smile at me, the drunk man grabbed his keys off of the hook and left.

I listened to his car pull out of the driveway before letting the tears fall freely down my face.

With my left arm, I pulled out the knife holding me to the wall and tossed it carelessly to the floor somewhere near the kitchen.

I could tell I was having a panic attack.

With shaky hands, I buttoned the few buttons left on my shirt and pulled my panties back up.

My breathing was labored and I could barely make it past the glassy mess before falling to my knees near the stairs and sobbing into my arms.

My forehead rested against the hardwood and loud cries left my lips.

Everything felt red.

I couldn't see anything and one of my hair buns had fallen out, tangling up with tears and snot.

I don't know how long I lay in a ball at the bottom of the stairs, just sobbing about everything in my life.

Funny how I had thought this morning that it would be a great day.

Sweat was running down my temples and racing to drip onto the ground.

A loud knock on the door made my sweat turn cold as I scrambled up to pull my shirt shut, since the buttons didn't cover everything, and make sure my skirt was covering my bottom.

"Who is it?"

My voice sounded strange even to me.

I took out my phone and glanced down at it.

It's four o'clock already?

Naruto's loud voice bellowed, "Tenten! Are you okay?"

A sigh of relief escaped me and I stumbled to open the front door, my other hand holding my shirt closed.

To my surprise, everyone was standing on my steps.

My eyes widened and I immediately slammed the door shut.

"You didn't say you were going to bring everyone!"

My cheeks felt hot.

Neji was out there!

Had he seen how rough I looked?

I fumbled to let down my other bun and smooth out my hair.

It was silent again for a moment before Hinata's sweet voice spoke, "T-tenten? It's okay. We told them everything. No one is going to say anything. Just let u-us in."

Slowly, I reopened the door and a wave of hysteria broke over me.

With my face burning, I held out my arms in a gesture, my shirt falling open.

Everyone's eyes widened as they took in the damage.

I felt so broken and disgusting, "This is...me."

My shoulders slumped and I turned to walk back towards the kitchen to get the first aid kit.

Everyone quietly followed me indoors.

In the back of my mind I was panicking.

Father'd be pissed if he came home and I had friends over.

My hands were shaking and I couldn't unlatch the damn box.

Tears started reforming in my eyes and my breathing picked up again.

A soft hand landed on top of mine and I looked over to see Hinata watching me with a sad expression.

Once again, I let the tears fall relentlessly and sobs wracked my body.

Hinata bravely pulled me into a hug, leading me over to sit in one of the chairs that was away from the broken glass.

She got me seated and carefully removed my shirt, not giving me a choice whether or not I was comfortable with all of the guys in the room.

When I looked up, they were all politely diverting their eyes except for Naruto and Neji.

Naruto's eyes were red and he was seething.

Neji's jaw was clenched and his eyes met mine and held them.

I'm not one to expect pity or sympathy, but he had such a look of disgust in his eyes that I had to pull my eyes away and let them fall to the floor.

Of course I finally like a guy and he ends up thinking I'm a waste of space.

He didn't say that to me, but I just got a strong feeling from him.

Sakura and Ino got the kit open and were cleaning the cuts on my shoulder, leg, and side.

Once they'd gotten the glass out, they sprayed rubbing alcohol onto them, Hinata holding my hand as I winced at the familiar sting.

Naruto spoke through the silence, "So what are you going to do after this?"

His voice was raspy and he had finally diverted his eyes.

The tears that once fell from my eyes had stopped and I kept my gaze on the ground, "I don't know what to do."

There was no point in lying to them anymore.

When they saw that my shirt was ripped open, they knew exactly what was going on.

No one bothered asking so I didn't bother explaining.

Ino spoke up, accidentally putting too much pressure on my leg, making me shy away before she gave me an apologetic look and continued more carefully, "Well each of us should ask our parents if it's alright if you come and stay with us if need be. If it ever gets bad enough that you need to run away, we should be ready to help."

Naruto threw his arms out angrily, "What do you mean "if" it gets bad enough? It is bad enough already! Do you not see her?"

He gestured to me, causing everyone in the room to look at me as if they were just now seeing my injuries.

Naruto's arms shook and he continued, "I've never had any parents, but if mine were as bad as yours are, then maybe it's for the best."

His eyes met mine, but Sasuke lay a hand on his shoulder.

Naruto just kept on going, "You need to get out of this house."

He pointed at the ground with his jaw clenched, "You need to leave now."

I didn't know what to say, but Hinata was surprisingly the one to speak up.

Releasing my hand she put up her hands defensively, "Sometimes it's not that s-simple, Naruto..."

She made eye contact with Neji and he looked away.

She looked down at me and back to him before closing her eyes, "My father, too, c-can become violent. I u-understand why Tenten says she can't just leave. P-p-perhaps her father is worse than mine, but the s-situation may be too serious to just run away from."

Everyone's eyes widened.

Now that was a plot twist no one expected.

Naruto's mouth hang slack and he let out an animalistic growl before stalking out of the house.

Neji gave us a nod and spoke in his baritone, "We'll go with him. I think he just needs some air."

Us girls nodded and all of the guys went outside to be with Naruto.

Sakura knelt down in front of me and held my hands, a serious look on her face, "Tenten. He didn't...He didn't rape you did he? If he did we should get you to the hospital for some spermicide."

So they were going to ask?

They had just waited until the guys were gone.

That's pretty considerate.

Hinata looked away and Ino brought a hand down on Sakura's shoulder, giving me a look that let me know they'd be there if I needed it.

I shook my head, tears welling up once again, "No. I thought he was going to, but he got a call and just left. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get away if he tries to next time though."

Hinata looked up at the door in shock.

We all turned to see Neji and Naruto standing there with shocked faces.

Naruto must've come back in to apologize or talk to Hinata.

Neji stepped forward and pushed the other girls out of the way.

Hinata grabbed his arm, but he shook it off.

His once stoic face was angry as he spoke in a cold voice, leaning down to make eye contact with me, "Don't be so weak. Naruto and I will teach you how to defend yourself, but this isn't going to happen overnight. You need to be careful. It's pathetic that you can't even stand up for yourself."

Naruto stepped closer, "Neji, man that's too harsh."

Neji glared up at him before looking back down at me, "You shouldn't cry over something like this. You're alive."

His harsh words did have some merit and I pulled Neji's arm as he tried to walk away. His warm body felt like a heating pad under my own tired skin, "When can you start teaching me?"

His eyebrows raised and he opened his mouth to reply, only to shoot his head toward the door.

Someone was pulling into the driveway.

I pushed past everyone in the room and ran outside.

The guys were all sitting on the grass next to the stairs, but when I ran outside they jumped to their feet as if they hadn't noticed the large Asian man stumbling out of his car in a raging fit.

I quickly jogged up to my dad before he could make it to the grass and put my hands up in defense, "Dad! I just needed someone to help me clean up the glass that you accidentally dropped. I couldn't find the broom anywhere so I thought it best if more than one person helped."

This is the dumbest excuse I'd ever thought up, for there's no way he would believe that bullshit.

However, I couldn't just tell him that all of the people standing by the stairs knew that he was as violent as a raging bull.

For a moment, when he didn't react in any way other than looking around, I thought that maybe he was too drunk to understand what was going on.

I mean, he was swaying just standing still, but out of nowhere, a stinging slap rang across my face so hard that my neck strained to turn so fast.

My hand shot up to my cheek.

I could already taste the blood in my mouth.

There was a variety of disgruntled noises from my friends, but the person who ran up to confront the evil man was not Naruto or Neji.

Hinata's small form appeared in front of me, and I had to do a double-take at the angry look on her face.

The expression did not fit her at all.

It was like I was looking at a different person.

Hinata put her arms out to a T, "Sir, I understand that you're angry, but please reconsider your decisions. What you're doing is illegal and you're not going to be lucky fore-"

Another slap rang through the air, and I was confused when it didn't hit my face.

Looking down, I saw Hinata's hands fly up to catch her face.

Unlike me, whose head turned away with the hit, her whole body tilted to the side, making her sidestep so she wouldn't fall over.

I don't know what came over me, but everything was red.

A snarl was heard from behind me and I just knew that it was Naruto.

Before I could rethink, I was stepping around Hinata, who was recollecting herself and moving away from the man who'd slapped her, and tackling my dad into his car.

His back hit the metal contraption roughly, and his eyes rolled when I bravely threw a punch at his face.

"How could you do something like this, Dad?"

I hit him again before Naruto reached me and began hitting him as well.

Even in my angry rampage I was sure not to shed a tear in front of the man.

Even if we beat him to a pulp, he's going to recover.

In fact, I slowly started getting away from the man under me, us beating him up might cause him to do something horrible.

I grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled him away.

Naruto's muscles twitched eagerly under my hold, ready to throw the next punch.

His usually cheerful face was red, his eyes were a dark crimson, and the whisker marks on his cheeks seemed more jagged than before.

He wasn't backing down just because I wanted him to.

Out of my peripheral, I saw my father holding his face and start to get up.

Naruto gave another growl before hollering at the drunk man before him, "I'll kill you, bastard!"

Another hand appeared on Naruto's other arm and I looked over to see Sasuke.

He wasn't looking at Naruto, though.

He pulled Naruto away, but his cold stare was on the drunk man that was fumbling to get his keys back out of his pocket.

It seems as though Dad was going to leave again.

Naruto eventually looked back to see who was pulling him and gave up fighting us.

My father gave me a sobering glare over the top of his car before getting back into it and leaving the house once more.

He slightly swerved here and there.

Maybe we'd get lucky and he'd die in a car accident.

Sasuke and Naruto rejoined the others, but I stood and watched the car become smaller and smaller until it was out of sight.

The adrenaline rush was over and I could feel each little ache and pain my new injuries offered.

My head was spinning and I assumed that this is what it felt like to be drunk.

I turned on my heel and stumbled over to Hinata.

She was being looked over by Sakura, but Naruto and Neji were standing protectively close with their eyes taking in everything that Sakura was doing.

They looked like her bodyguards.

Once I was close enough for them to notice me, I gave a smile, "Hinata, are you okay? Thank you for helping like that."

I blinked and when I reopened my eyes, it was like they were still shut.

I saw black, and the feeling in my gut was similar to that of the moment on a rollercoaster when you're going over the top of the tallest hill.

My hands shot out to grab something so I wouldn't fall, but nothing was there.

My balance gave in and I was falling, but strong arms grabbed me around my waist and pulled me up against them for support.

My breathing was labored and my eyes were shut.

I heard Neji's smooth voice ask with surprising worry, "Tenten, can you hear me?"

So he had rushed to catch me?

The thought would've made me blush, but instead I pulled a Hinata and just fainted right then and there.


End file.
